UA taps top researcher Martinez to lead BIO5 institute

One of the world’s top researchers of childhood lung diseases
will become the interim director of the BIO5 Institute at the
University of Arizona, starting next week.

Fernando Martinez is the Swift-McNear professor of pediatrics,
the director of the UA College of Medicine’s Arizona Respiratory
Center and a longtime BIO5 faculty member.

“I am very grateful for this unique opportunity to take my
commitment to interdisciplinary research in life sciences to its
highest level,” Martinez said in a statement. “There are few other
examples in this country of a research institute in which
bioengineers, biostatisticians, basic biological scientists” plant
geneticists and biomedical researchers collaborate and pursue
common goals.

The BIO5 Institute plays a role in regional and statewide
bioscience economic and workforce development plans, a release
said. The institute helps spur interactions between researchers and
industries.

Martinez has published 160 original research papers and authored
20 book chapters. His work has given him a major policy voice with
the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National
Institutes of Health, the release said.

He also is the principal investigator on the UA portion of the
NIH’s National Children’s Study, a major effort to investigate the
interaction of genes and the environment on children’s health. The
UA’s Department of Pediatrics received $44 million to participate
in the study.